Eating: utelsils? food throwing?

I'm just wondering how everyone's LO's are doing with eating. Are they using utensils yet?Do they throw food when they're finished?

We haven't tried, really tried, utensils yet at home because of the mess. This is totally selfish of me and I know I need to get over it because Shea should at least be trying to use utelsils, I think. I know at daycare they have her use a spoon sometimes, but I don't know how successful they are.When I've tried at home, the spoon or fork just seems to be something to play with, especially if it's got food on it! Oooh, a food catapult device, what a wonderful invention!

Which brings me to the food throwing. When Shea is done eating, she'll start playing with her food, mashing it and smearing it, or piling it up in the cup holder. But probably about half of the time, she will start throwing it. At me, at DH, on the floor, wherever she can. Do your LO's do this? So of course she gets reprimanded and at least half of our meals end up in tears. Oh, toddlers....

I'm just wondering how everyone's LO's are doing with eating. Are they using utensils yet?Do they throw food when they're finished?

We haven't tried, really tried, utensils yet at home because of the mess. This is totally selfish of me and I know I need to get over it because Shea should at least be trying to use utelsils, I think. I know at daycare they have her use a spoon sometimes, but I don't know how successful they are.When I've tried at home, the spoon or fork just seems to be something to play with, especially if it's got food on it! Oooh, a food catapult device, what a wonderful invention!

Which brings me to the food throwing. When Shea is done eating, she'll start playing with her food, mashing it and smearing it, or piling it up in the cup holder. But probably about half of the time, she will start throwing it. At me, at DH, on the floor, wherever she can. Do your LO's do this? So of course she gets reprimanded and at least half of our meals end up in tears. Oh, toddlers....

We have let our lo learn how to use utensils on her own for the past few months. She does great until she's finished then just like your lo she starts throwing the food on the floor (lucky for me though I have a cleanup crew of 3 dogs who love picking up her mess!!) so I don't really mind it too much! But what we do we allwaysit with her to eat then once we notice she's gettin full we ask her are you all done then she does the sign for it then imediatly we remove her so there less of a mess. But she eats really great by herself more so with spoons but overall we let her eat on her own we recently started letting her eat soups with the broth in it (we use to drain the broth) and suprisingly she really loves soup and can eat it byherself.

We have let our lo learn how to use utensils on her own for the past few months. She does great until she's finished then just like your lo she starts throwing the food on the floor (lucky for me though I have a cleanup crew of 3 dogs who love picking up her mess!!) so I don't really mind it too much! But what we do we allwaysit with her to eat then once we notice she's gettin full we ask her are you all done then she does the sign for it then imediatly we remove her so there less of a mess. But she eats really great by herself more so with spoons but overall we let her eat on her own we recently started letting her eat soups with the broth in it (we use to drain the broth) and suprisingly she really loves soup and can eat it byherself.

Emmett still eats mostly with his hands and DEFINITELY plays with/throws food when he is finished. We, too, have been a little behind on the utensil use because of the mess. :( We give him a fork more often than a spoon because he seems to have better luck stabbing food than scooping. We just take it a day at a time...I figure he'll get it when he's good and ready. :)

Emmett still eats mostly with his hands and DEFINITELY plays with/throws food when he is finished. We, too, have been a little behind on the utensil use because of the mess. :( We give him a fork more often than a spoon because he seems to have better luck stabbing food than scooping. We just take it a day at a time...I figure he'll get it when he's good and ready. :)

I have read that throwing food is just their way of exploring cause and effect and communicating when they are bored/full. Rather than disciplining (which got us nowhere cause she was enjoying getting a response from us), we have begun going to her high chair and saying something like, "it looks like you're all done since you're throwing your food," and letting her down from her seat. She learned pretty quickly what it meant.

As far as utensils go, with my older DD, we waited way too long to introduce utensils cause I didn't want the mess. We were feeding her well into her 2s, which I see now is totally ridiculous. Daycares have no choice but to give kids utensils since they can't help feed every kid, so that's what we have been doing with DD. she's been using a fork and spoon (sort of) successfully for a few months.

I have read that throwing food is just their way of exploring cause and effect and communicating when they are bored/full. Rather than disciplining (which got us nowhere cause she was enjoying getting a response from us), we have begun going to her high chair and saying something like, "it looks like you're all done since you're throwing your food," and letting her down from her seat. She learned pretty quickly what it meant.

As far as utensils go, with my older DD, we waited way too long to introduce utensils cause I didn't want the mess. We were feeding her well into her 2s, which I see now is totally ridiculous. Daycares have no choice but to give kids utensils since they can't help feed every kid, so that's what we have been doing with DD. she's been using a fork and spoon (sort of) successfully for a few months.

I have let DS have a fork with his food since before he turned one, despite my weird doctor saying that it was bad (who knows why but she freaked out at his 12 month appointment when i told her he was starting to use a fork and she said i couldnt give him one til 15months)anyways, he is pretty good with the fork, but does not get the concept of the spoon yet. he will not always use the fork and sometimes just plays with it or tries to brush his hair, but he will not eat at all if he does not have a fork with his food. yes it is messy but the way i see it kids are messy and thats life.he throws his food all the time and we have been experimenting with different ways to get him to understand thats not ok we have tried letting him down and telling him supper is over right away but that just became a reason to throw the food so he could go play, so right now we are making him stay there a few minutes with no food and then letting him down but making him pick up the mess he made.

I have let DS have a fork with his food since before he turned one, despite my weird doctor saying that it was bad (who knows why but she freaked out at his 12 month appointment when i told her he was starting to use a fork and she said i couldnt give him one til 15months)anyways, he is pretty good with the fork, but does not get the concept of the spoon yet. he will not always use the fork and sometimes just plays with it or tries to brush his hair, but he will not eat at all if he does not have a fork with his food. yes it is messy but the way i see it kids are messy and thats life.he throws his food all the time and we have been experimenting with different ways to get him to understand thats not ok we have tried letting him down and telling him supper is over right away but that just became a reason to throw the food so he could go play, so right now we are making him stay there a few minutes with no food and then letting him down but making him pick up the mess he made.

We have tried a few times to give LO a spoon, but she either wants to hold it by the scoop end or if we can get her to scoop up yogurt or something, she just wants to touch it. It's just a game to her. Admittedly I should try harder and I haven't because it will be a giant mess. I know that shouldn't stop me. Maybe I should try a fork instead and see where that goes.

As far as throwing food, Kamryn went through a long phase of throwing practically everything we put on her tray. If she did it for me I ignored it or if she did it for my husband it pissed him off and he tried to discipline her. Now if she starts throwing food we offer it on our hand and if she's done then we take the food off her tray. She throws a lot less now. Sometimes she does it still and it's like she just likes to watch it fall on the floor.

We have tried a few times to give LO a spoon, but she either wants to hold it by the scoop end or if we can get her to scoop up yogurt or something, she just wants to touch it. It's just a game to her. Admittedly I should try harder and I haven't because it will be a giant mess. I know that shouldn't stop me. Maybe I should try a fork instead and see where that goes.

As far as throwing food, Kamryn went through a long phase of throwing practically everything we put on her tray. If she did it for me I ignored it or if she did it for my husband it pissed him off and he tried to discipline her. Now if she starts throwing food we offer it on our hand and if she's done then we take the food off her tray. She throws a lot less now. Sometimes she does it still and it's like she just likes to watch it fall on the floor.

We started letting Mason use a spoon and fork by himself at 16 months. He does really good now and can feed himself. We use large bibs so any food he spills falls into the bib or back on his tray. As far as throwing food? We have been very strict about it because our dining area is in on white carpet. We take his food away if he starts to throw any of it and will get the top of his hand swatted if he is doing it because we said no. Our dog does get the mess on the carpet right away. Mason does get the tray VERY messy and we let him do that so he can experiment with the food. We have also had a few meals with tears. Just be consistant and they will get the idea eventually. :)

We started letting Mason use a spoon and fork by himself at 16 months. He does really good now and can feed himself. We use large bibs so any food he spills falls into the bib or back on his tray. As far as throwing food? We have been very strict about it because our dining area is in on white carpet. We take his food away if he starts to throw any of it and will get the top of his hand swatted if he is doing it because we said no. Our dog does get the mess on the carpet right away. Mason does get the tray VERY messy and we let him do that so he can experiment with the food. We have also had a few meals with tears. Just be consistant and they will get the idea eventually. :)

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